First hand accounts reveal flaws in justice, education systems

The first time Jacob Rusher was put in the Douglas County Youth Facility, he was placed in lockdown for breaking his ankle. He was supposed to be in lockdown for a few weeks, but when he pounded on the door, cursing and begging to be released, his stay was extended to three months. He was no longer being held for his protection, but for “inciting a riot.” His next two experiences in solitary came when he was attacked by older detainees, and were similarly difficult for him.

Rusher’s experience is not an isolated incident. Although some states have strict restrictions on the use of solitary confinement on youth, Nebraska is not among them. Some facility policies in the state permit youth to be held in solitary for up to 90 days. Until recently, many youth correctional facilities often had varied and inconsistent definitions of solitary confinement like “restrictive housing,” or simply “isolation.” But Tyler Richard, communications director of the ACLU insisted that the name doesn’t matter.

“Regardless of what you call it, mental health experts know that after a few hours of isolating a young person, there starts to be permanent brain damage and permanent changes in behavior,” Richard said.

He also cited the fact that solitary confinement increases the risk to both the detainees and other

“When it is used as a punishment, regardless of what the offence was, what mental health experts tell us is that you don’t have a positive impact on the youth, and you actually increase the risk of many dangerous things, like suicidal ideation, or attacks on other staff or other youth in the facilities,” Richard said.

The records also indicate that young people were subjected to solitary confinement for number of minor offences, as well as attempts at self-harm.

“Youth were given solitary for having too many books in the room, to much more disruptive behavior,” Richard said.

While Richard stated that “giving a youth an opportunity to sit down, take a few deep breaths” may be beneficial, he said that solitary should never be used as a punitive measure.

“It doesn’t matter what a young person has done, that a facility is saying ‘you need to be in solitary’, if it’s for punishment, that’s the wrong reason,” Richard.

In addition to lax restrictions on the use of solitary on minors, Nebraska also has the third highest youth incarceration rate in the nation. In fact, while the national youth incarceration rate has actually gone down by significantly in the last six years, it has risen in Nebraska.

“We have to step back and ask, ‘Why are these youth in the facilities in the first place?’” Richard said. “We have to be asking whether the number of youth that are in juvenile facilities is really appropriate. Should many of these young people be in some at home program? Should they be getting mental health or behavioral health treatment?”

“There are far too many young people that are in the juvenile justice system,” Richard went on to say. “We need to be looking at alternatives to juvenile incarceration, period.”

Brian Munnelly, an experienced lawyer who claims to have worked almost a thousand juvenile justice cases, explained that there is a growing movement to avoid juvenile detention facilities altogether. This movement may largely be influenced by the expanding realization that youth detention can have serious and lasting effects on young people.

“Even if something is a sealed record, there’s a mentality that starts to be there that a young person that has been in a juvenile facility starts to really question what they can do after they’re out of that facility, so we see that impacting their education and career in major ways,” Richard said.

Richard conceded that there will always be a small portion of Nebraska’s youth that need long term help, but argued that there are still better methods of treatment than what Nebraska currently uses.

“We really have to be looking at constructive programming. We find that when there are things like GD training classes, or job skills training classes, those end up dramatically reducing recidivism rates- the chance that someone will offend again- and also ends up decreasing the violence in these facilities.”

Richard and the ACLU also uncovered that youth detainees were disproportionately African American or other minorities.

“Particularly when we are talking about younger offenders, we see that there are huge racial disparities, and this definitely exists throughout our criminal justice system.”

Richard believes he has the solution, or at least a way to alleviate the problem.

“We are not giving judges discretion, frequently, to look at the individual circumstances and make a decision about what’s best for this individual. So we need to be giving them that discretion and get rid of many of the mandatory minimum sentences that are impacting adults and juveniles.”

Munnelly also put forward a solution.

“We have to pay our social workers more, so they are motivated do a good job, and to attract better social workers. We also have to make sure that there are enough facilities where youth can go that is not somewhere between these correctional facilities and at-home programs.”

Munnelly believes the problems with Nebraska’s juvenile justice system could be solved if lobbyists and legislators cared more about the issue.

“Lobbyists don’t push juvenile justice reform, because they think ‘they’re just kids’ and ‘delinquents’ on top of that.”

Richard is hopeful for change, but believes the juvenile justice system will remain flawed as long as the education system does.

“We have to be fully funding our educational system,” Richard said, “and make sure that we are putting more money into our schools, and not prisons.”